This letter was published in the Mille Lacs Messenger, a Minnesota county newspaper.

Expediting the end?

by Thomas Ivan Dahlheimer

Islam is often judged by its militant extremists. But most of us do not judge Christianity by its militant extremists. Conservative evangelicals have been some of the most outspoken advocates of the unprovoked and unjust war on Iraq, apparently hoping to prepare the way for the second coming of Jesus Christ by harassing Middle East Muslims so that they initiate Armageddon.

President Bush has acknowledged that Iraq did not have WMDs, nor ties with Al Qaida. And the intelligence agencies were unanimous in their evaluations and statements that Iraq had no interest in attacking us.

Bush is a conservative evangelical and his war on Iraq is not "pre-emptive." It is a war crime, a violation of international law, a crime against humanity, and a war that seems to fit in perfectly with many conservative evangelicals end-time doctrine. Are conservative evangelicals trying to provoke Muslims to fulfill their end-time prophecies by initiating Armageddon?

Nowhere in scripture does Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, instruct believers to wage war in the Middle East in order to hasten the second coming. Will believers be "left behind" for instigating and/or continuing to support the brutal and unjust war on Iraq?